The present invention relates to the field of mobile computer systems. In particular the present invention discloses a computer system having an external physical interface and robust computer software that allows peripherals to be coupled to and decoupled from the physical interface while the computer system is operating.
Mobile computer systems have become a very popular form of computing device. Mobile computer systems allow users to access large amounts of personal information such as an address book, a personal calendar, and a list of to-dos. In particular, the Palm(copyright) series of palm-sized computer systems from Palm Computing, Inc of Santa Clara, Calif. have become the de facto standard of handheld computer systems.
To provide additional functionality, it is desirable to include an external hardware interface on the mobile computer system. The Palm(copyright) series of palm-sized computer systems includes an external serial interface for communicating with external peripherals. However, an external serial interface is limited due to the limited communication bandwidth and limited interface features.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a higher bandwidth and more feature laden external interface. Ideally, the external interface should be very simple to use such that the user does not need any training. Furthermore, the external Interface should be robust enough to handle any type of user behavior whether appropriate or not.
The present invention introduces a robust external interface for a computer system. The external interface allows a user to insert or remove external peripherals to the external interface at any time such that the user does not need to carefully follow any scripted procedures. The external interface software detects insertions or removals and acts in an appropriate manner.